The Powder Room

Spending on anti-ageing beauty products for women in their 50s and 60s has shot up nearly 200% in the past year as British women try to look as good as 60-something role models like Dame Helen Mirren.

For the first time this age group are the spending more on skincare than women in their 30s and 40s according to leading online beauty retailer Escentual.com.

Women in this “Silver Surfer” 60s age group are now spending on average £235 every year on skincare alone. This expenditure on anti-ageing creams and serums is now higher than any other age group: Women in their 20s were seen to spend £80 per year on skincare, 30-something women spent on average £140-a-year, women in their 40s £210 and 50-something women spend £220.

The high-end beauty retailer puts this down to several high profile women like Dame Helen that have kept their looks well into their late 60s. Dame Helen won a BAFTA Fellowship this week and looked nearly 20 years younger than her actual age of 68, and other famous women are also looking amazing well into their 60s like Jane Seymour, 63, Susan Sarandon, 68, and Jacqueline Bisset, 70.

Rakesh Aggarwal from Escentual.com said: “Even a year ago the skincare market for the over 60s was not a significant amount - we would see expenditure of around £80 per annum for this age group and it is now nearly three times that amount. Without a doubt this age group is the single biggest growth market for anti-ageing beauty.

“We put this down to many more mature female role models in their 60s showing women that they can look amazing at this age. This “Silver Surfer” age group also are often financially more independent and secure now so they often have more disposable income than some younger women.”

Rakesh Aggarwal added: “Clearly the big beauty houses have picked up on this trend for 60-something women becoming a bigger market. Some of the biggest skin-care sellers that we have had this year have been anti-ageing products targeted at this age range, such as Dior DreamSkin Serum, Clarins Double Serum and Guerlain Abeille Royale.”

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The Top Five Selling Escentual Anti-Ageing Skin-Care Products

Vichy Normaderm Anti-Ageing Anti-Wrinkle Resurfacing Care 50ml £13.15
La Roche-Posay Anti-Ageing Sensitive Skin Fill-In Care 40ml £26
Nuxe Day Anti-Ageing Re-Densifying Emulsion 50ml £43
Clarins Double Serum – Complete Age Control Concentrate 30ml £44
Dior Capture Totale Dreamskin 30ml £67.15

Women spend almost a month and a half of their lives in the hairdressers, a new survey has found.

The poll, by money saving website PromotionalCodes.org.uk, asked women how often they visit the hairdresser, and how long they spend having their hair done.

It found that ladies spend 20 hours on average a year in the hairdresser’s chair, which equates to a massive 39 days in their lifetime.

Visits included appointments for a standard cut and blow dry, which averaged at 45 minutes, a full colour that takes two and a half hours and up do’s for special occasions such as weddings and parties, which averaged at one hour. The survey also found that women splash out just short of £600 on keeping their hair styled in one year- or a whopping £28,000 in a lifetime.

More than two thirds of New Year dieters will ditch their weight loss regime by the 17th of January, says a new poll.

Research by money saving website PromotionalCodes.org.uk found three per cent only last until the end of day one, 12% manage to go the distance for a week, 24% last two weeks, and seventeen days in a further 28% will have ditched the diet.

Of those remaining, 12% claimed they’d last until the end of the month, with 21% saying they would stick to their new regime for several months, although they expected some blips along the way.

The survey questioned 580 adults on their dieting habits and how they planned to shed the weight.  41% said they’d cut calories simply by watching what they eat and by exercising more. Techniques included eating more fresh fruit and vegetables, cutting out processed meals, reducing their alcohol consumption and walking instead of using the car. Just over a quarter, 26% said they joined a slimming club to help them lose the excess pounds.  While 19% opted for online diet and fitness plans, with those remaining deciding to sign up with a personal trainer at the gym, lose weight with a group of friends or pay for a diet plan, which includes prepared meals.

More than two thirds of UK bosses (68.6%) said they would be less likely to employ a female job applicant if she didn’t wear make-up at interview.

The survey by leading UK beauty retailer Escentual.com also showed that 49% of bosses said it would be a major factor if the job was in sales or was a public-facing role in the company. Figures were similar for promotion prospects with 60.8% of company executives saying that if female staff members didn’t wear cosmetics on a regular basis it would have a detrimental effect, and 39.2% said female staff would be much less likely to get promoted if the job entailed meeting people and members of the public.

The survey also showed that 67% of bosses would take a dim view of female staff not wearing make-up at key business meetings.  While two thirds of female staff (66.4%) said they would feel much less confident if they were at a high-level meeting without cosmetics on.

Escentual.com Beauty Editor Emma Leslie said: "Whether rightly or wrongly, British bosses clearly think that keeping up appearances at work is an important factor for female staff if they want to get on in their career."

Some 63.8% of female staff surveyed said they would always wear make-up at work, and 98% said they would wear make-up to a job interview. There was one exception to the “make-up at work” rule however; most women said they would go without make-up at work for charity, and said that Breast Cancer Care’s #DareToBare campaign was one such example. (www.justgiving.com/teams/Escentual-Dare-To-Bare)

New research by a hair and beauty retailer in the UK has revealed that the average British woman has a beauty collection worth £450; including makeup, cosmetics, creams and fragrances.

But the average woman only uses around a quarter of her collection (that's £110 worth.)

Xtras.co.uk polled 1,872 women from the UK, aged 18 and over, and asked them questions about the cosmetics they currently had in their possession. The study was part of ongoing research into the hair and beauty habits and preferences of British females.

Perfume was revealed to be the average lady's most expensive beauty item (followed by foundation, and then mascara.) While some  52% admitted that they have products in their beauty collection that were past their use-by dates.